Question of the week #33

Someone asked me a question this week who had three kids between 8-11. She wanted to know what would be my one piece of advice in raising kids. I thought about it and said to be honest with your kids. Tell them the truth when they ask as they wouldn't ask if they weren't ready to know the answer.

So when this question popped up this week, although a little different, I thought I would write about it.

How old were your kids when you moved into the city, what were the
tradeoffs, and what were the keys to making city life as "easy" as
suburban life for your kids?

When we moved back to the city our kids were 8, 6 and 3. There might have been a tradeoff for the kids since they had a backyard to run around in but city life made Fred and me happier. Happy parents, happy kids.

As they say, it is all about how anything is presented. We told the kids that we had the best news in the world and that we were going to move back to the city. What did they know? All they knew is that we couldn't be happier so they literally cheered.

There are still soccer programs, art classes, community oriented baseball leagues so the things that are easily available in suburban life are easily available in the city too. The only difference is there is more concrete, less grass and kids can't roam as freely until they hit a certain age. What there isn't in the suburbs but there is in the city is museums, amazing restaurants, cultural experiences just walking down the street, art galleries, theater and more.

Fast forward our kids are now 22, 20 and 17 and I am 100% positive that they will all agree that one of the best decisions we ever made as parents was moving them to the city instead of raising them in the suburbs. We were lucky that financially we could opt for either choice and so we opted for the choice that for us was the perfect move.